DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the application): The goal of this project is to validate a new method for drug-lead discovery that relies on cascaded multi-step selection of small chemical groups to construct larger molecules having high affinity for a protein target. This method increases efficiency over combinatorial chemistry in executing the selection before, rather than after, chemical synthesis. This technology will be developed using thymidylate synthase, a validated target for anti-cancer and anti-proliferative agents. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: NOT AVAILABLE